Keep in touch...

Is it me or the world is really running short of friends nowadays?
The last time I had a big friends party was quite some time back, like an year and though I get to talk to a few friends here and there but it doesn't seem that there are a whole lot of friends there anymore.
Have the species called friends (or rather good friends) extinct?
Now whenever my phone rings or some one pings me on IM and he or she is an old friend of mine, I had to ask them "are you getting married?" or "are you going to states or are already in states?".
Friends don't really are in touch with friends anymore (and believe me I am not complaining just wondering).
Once upon a time there used to be a lot of friends in our lives and then the stories goes like this 'they got married' or 'they got into a job'(we would never think the reason to be that 'we got married' or 'we got into a job').
The job and married life has taken over so much that there is hardly anytime to be in touch with friends.
In such a case probably we remember our friends only when we want to share some happiness with others. And sharing happiness today means mostly an IM or a group email to everyone in our contact list informing that 'you have become father/mother', 'you are getting married' or 'you are moving to States or Switzerland or wonderland'. And once that mail goes out of our outbox most of the time our job of 'keeping in touch' ends there.
You said keep in touch and thanks to Sabir Bhatia and now gmail I am keeping in touch but I am sorry I can't stick around.
With the technology all around us and keeping in touch becoming as simple as dialing a number or connecting to internet we probably have stopped keeping in touch (its similar to a person living in New York for years and not having seen the statue of liberty).

Orkuting or some other type of 'ing' sites (the so called social networking sites and I am fed up of receiving a new invite every week to join a new social networking site) were supposed to be bringing friends closer (and a few did a pretty good job) but then after a while we got even so busy on the internet that we stop scrapping or messaging or walling...

Our life is pretty much surrounded with our office colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances and probably we are so much engrossed in our lives that we don't seem to need any one else, may be not even our old friends.

As someone told me once that I am turning into a narcissist, 5 minutes of thinking make me feel that probably most of us are.

And I am not sure if this is a good thing or bad but it surely has been a long time since I attended a friends reunion.

Marriage and Smiles...

I am not usually a "forward" reader (and rarely people send me forwards) but sometimes when my mood is off I try to go through the small list of forwards sitting in my mail box.
Here is one that made me smile the other day:

Toofaani Barish

Aadhi raat

Ramlal, Pizza Hut pe pizza lene aaya

Waiter: Kya aap Married hain?

Ramlal: Kutte! Aisi toofani barish main, kaunsi Maa apne bete ko pizza lene bhejegi?

And here are a few good lines which one of my Friend Kiran Telangi sent along with his marriage card, they are really good and aptly describes "Marriage".

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find
Someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours,
We join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it marriage"

Kiran Many congratulations!! and here's wishing this "weirdness" continues throughout your life.

Get tested, it's in fashion

I heard this line sometimes back on a TV show.
A new york based designer Sanjana Jon brought the Miss Universe 'Zuleyka Rivera' to India for the AIDS awareness campaign.
I wouldn't stress on why to get tested, as I am sure anybody reading this would be well aware about HIV/AIDS (If not, then there is plenty of information available online or watch the movie 'Phir Milenge').
I just want to endorse this line for all of those going in for sexual relations with new partners and also those already in a relation.
One of the way to do our bit is before you are going to marry it is the best that both the partners exchange the HIV certificates.
Getting tested before marriage and exchanging certificates shouldn't be seen as disrespecting your partner or doubting his/her integrity but rather as a caring gesture towards your partner. Nobody would like to pass on any disease to his/her partner, whatever it might be.
And being educated and knowing about the disease so much, this is the least we can do to spread the awareness about the disease.

So my request to all of you getting married talk to your partner and "Get tested, it's in fashion"